Napkins in the form of sheets of material intended for wiping and for hygienic purposes are common household items that may be provided in the form of stacks of napkins from which individual napkins can be readily removed when needed. The dispenser for the napkins should be easy to handle, should protect the napkins until use and should be easy to move to a location where the napkins are needed, such as to a table, a counter, etc.
A common type of dispenser for this kind of napkins is an open cardboard box in which the napkins are arranged in a stack standing on an edge of the napkins with part of the napkins protruding through the opening in the box to provide grippability. This is a simple and inexpensive way of dispensing the napkins. However, the protruding parts of the napkins tend to fold over the edge of the box and become ruffled and deformed.
Moreover, as soon as a few napkins have been removed from the box, the remaining stack does not fill the width of the container with the result that the stack may buckle inside the box.
A further commonly used option is to arrange the napkins in an interfolded stack which is placed standing on a bottom surface in a container having a dispensing opening at the top of the container. The napkins are then successively removed from the top of the stack through the dispensing opening.
Interfolded napkins are sheets of materials arranged in a stack of superposed sheets which are each folded at least once. The sheets are interlinked in such a way that the separate folded sheets of material form a chain of sheets where each sheet has a leading panel and a trailing panel, the trailing panel being at least partly overlapped with the leading panel of the subsequent sheet in the stack. In this manner, the individual sheets are held loosely together by means of frictional forces arising between the overlapping parts. The sheets may be dispensed from a dispenser by pulling at the leading panel of the first sheet in the stack. In this manner, the first material sheet is extracted at the same time as a predetermined part of the leading panel of a subsequent material sheet is fed into a dispensing position in the dispenser.
The dispenser usually has a lid or cover with a dispensing opening that restricts the width of the dispensed napkin in order to keep the leading panel of the next napkin to be dispensed from falling back into the dispenser.
WO2010/102674 describes a dispenser for tissue paper comprising an inner core and an outer shell, each having a dispensing opening. When the inner core is received in the outer shell, the respective dispensing openings are aligned. The inner core is insertable into the outer shell in a direction perpendicular to the dispensing opening.
In WO2010/102674, for use of the dispenser, a first napkin must be pulled from the top end of the stack and through the dispensing mouth. This procedure might be difficult and often results in a wrinkled napkin.
WO2011/152867 describes a dispenser including a holder for receiving a refill container including a stack of sheets. The refill container includes opposed first and second flaps extending over a top surface of the stack and defining a longitudinal dispensing slot between them.
In WO 2011/152867, the leading end of an uppermost sheet in the stack will be presented to a user lying flatly down over one of the first and second flaps.
In view of the prior art, there is still a need for improvement when it comes to providing a dispenser which allows for a user-friendly presentation of napkins to a user.
It is desired to provide an improved or alternative dispenser for dispensing interfolded napkins.